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From Seattle to the convoys rendezvous point
of icy cable Aska west of Point Barrow

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is three thousand miles

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and I see Cape ships had to wait on the
unpredictable behavior of the ever shifting

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ice pack.

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Meanwhile on the East Coast the ships out
of Halifax were having their own hard

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going some made their way singly to their
destinations along the East Coast of

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Baffin Island the others rendezvous then
headed into Fox spaces on route to the

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sites on the west coast of baton Island

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and on the Melville Peninsula where at the
rendezvous point they were joined by two

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Canadian icebreakers which led them northward
through four hundred fifty miles of

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heavy ice after eight days

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of nervous going in the on charted seas
eight days a steady grinding with no

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advance at all on some days the convoy
made it to the Melville Peninsula

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from here an airlift would have to fly
everything to other sites not accessible by

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water.

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Inland from a staging area at Edmonton
Alberta material for some of the central

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sites where shipped by truck

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and rail to the river town of
waterways where it was put on barges

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the barges proceeded down river for three
hundred miles then because of rapids in

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the river. The entire expedition
had to take to the land or a port.

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Even the new tugboat acquired
by barge operations.

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Had to make it along this twenty
five mile stretch of terra firma

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in the river again the barge train resumed
its water route across Great Slave.

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Then it continued northward down the Mackenzie
River to the boat forty two thousand

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miles in all.

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To the western convoy waiting off
icy cape the word came at last

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that the ice was retreating.

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But still it was touch

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and go with the ice breakers
clearing the way some

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ships dashed to a nearby destinations
as the narrow corridor was opened up.

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Others pushed through
to reach more site spot

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and for twelve hundred miles further to
the east at many sites the ships had to

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unload in desperate haste for a shift in
the wind could bring the ice back into

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shore overnight

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through late August

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and into September the unloading of the
ships proceeded along the full length of

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the line every item carefully
logged in and stored.

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According to plan.

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Now to build with the material brought
by the ships in a race against the

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approaching winter.

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Work was rushed on the permanent
living and operating quarters.

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These were prefabricated structures made
up of standard units called modules.

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In the boat

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or strewn terrain of some Eastern sites
where there were no gravel deposits the big

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rock pressures brought in by the sealift
were put to work to supply the great

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quantities of gravel and.

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And needed it was in this area
where the terrain was worst

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that the longest roads had to be built
here the stations were to be placed on top

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of bricks some as high as twenty five hundred
feet above the sea without the roads

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modular units could not be
hauled to their foundations

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October ten months had
gone by all too soon.

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The long winter closes with its
fierce storms its brief twilights

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and long darkness.

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Finishing the module interiors called
for all the craft of the building trade

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Americans

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and Canadians were recruited from every
corner of the two countries for the skilled

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task for

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the module concept solve the problem
of providing shelter on the dual line

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that would be adequate
comfortable and safe

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and could take it from
the savage elements.

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At the same time the TO began the all
important task of installing the radar

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and radio equipment the wiring of these

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systems was extremely complex but
experience and careful training paid off.

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They were ready now to install the radar
control console was being flown up by the

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Air Force from a Western Electric
plant in North Carolina.

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But some sites had no landing strips for
the big cargo plane police helicopter

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and a shuttle in the one and a
half ton mains containing the guns

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and another job for the C one twenty
four that winter was getting.

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The big antennas of the search radars
to the line from an Air Force Base in

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Delaware the delicate match parts of
each antenna were packed in seventeen

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great especially designed
in assorted shapes

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and sizes to fit into
to see one twenty four.

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With the installation of the control console
the inside electronic work was well

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underway.

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The stations were still locked in the
grip of the second to line winter

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but the crews but not wait
longer to start of a few towers.

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They blasted holes for the
foundations of the photos in the

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same mix concrete unheated tent. As they
pour the concrete in the bitter cold.

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They kept it from freezing by
pumping in heat on the top

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with the foundations in the tower
worked quite steadily both.

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June of the second year eighteen
months gone fourteen to go

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summer in the Arctic brings
a blue moon wildflowers

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and temperatures sometimes as high
as sixty degrees. More often.

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The temperature stayed near freezing

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but the wind subsided much of the time
then it was good weather for erecting the

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search radar antenna these positions
mechanisms would be damaged if a sudden wind

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storm came up so one started the job had
to be finished as fast as possible.

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The crews worked around the clock until
the entire assembly was in place

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and its protective covering erected in

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that second summer when you see live came
and went another transportation epic

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but already an old story on the do lines.

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Ranking officers of the Air Force
on their inspection tour late

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that summer had good reason to be
satisfied with the progress they've both

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the Air Force

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and Bell System officials kept in frequent
first hand touch with work on the line.

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And summer gave way to ball the crews
pushed intensively to finish installing the

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antennas in the aircraft alarm towers

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and the various permanent radio systems

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when the radio antennas were up the
Stations of the line would be able to

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communicate with each
other more dependably

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and the line could communicate with the air
defense control centers far to the sun.

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With permanents completed at most of the
sites the airlift was giving full year

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round service to virtually
the entire line.

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Some of those new permanent air strips in
the rugged Eastern terrain were pretty

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well rugged.

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December. And the second
of July in Christmas.

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By now many of the sites were fully built
project five seven two was proceeding on

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schedule but indoors many months of
work still remain to finish installing

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and testing the radars on
the communications systems

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and to coordinate them from station to
station here in the modules which housed

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this equipment was the heart
of each do Line station.

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On the performance of the electronic
equipment the success of the whole vast

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undertaking would stand
or fall the work went on.

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And once you.

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Are they Arctic winter closed him

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off in the expression snow

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and had a completely literal meaning

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but nature in the Arctic no longer seems
so set for life on the Dew Line had become

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pretty civilized.

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Your courters What a pleasant room which
had quite a few of the comforts of home

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your ship was one of three
that kept the radar

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and communications systems
continually manned.

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You worked through the morning
and broke for a good lunch.

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Then back to work on off time
there were various sports to

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help you keep fit. Spring
baseball practice started early.

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While you were working up an appetite for
chef would be doing something about it.

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After dinner because each man to his
own pleasure. It might be music.

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Perhaps you preferred a rousing game of
table tennis no quarter given you can curl

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up with a good book. Are there was

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that other fine intellectual pastime
called Put no quarter given here either.

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But always on mainly there was the
work of continuous testing the precise

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calibrating of the electronic equipment
so radically new in many respects through

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that third winter

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and spring more than a million tests
were made to check out the detection

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and tracking capabilities of the radars

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you live thirty first of. The thirty
second month since the job began.

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On

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that day the do a line system was declared
officially operational completed on schedule.

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You know about half the time such an
undertaking normally would require even in a

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civilized area and for the Canadian

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and American people would have a distant
early warning line guarding them against

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attack from the north

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but the building of the new line that's
done more than provide a vital warning

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system.

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It has conquered the far northern wilderness
this remote part of the world may

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now be put to whatever purposes men which.

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Do align stations may in time be further
equipped taking advantage of new

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technological advances and
meeting new military threats

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but perhaps the truest Oracle role of the
dual line will prove to be the opening up

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for peaceful

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and productive purposes of a vast new
frontier above the Arctic Circle the untapped

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resources of which we have
a he had barely a glimpse.

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That would be the finest reward of all
for the man who built the DEW line.

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At both

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news.